This winter has been physically and mentally wonderful. We have spent time each day hauling firewood and wood pellets, cross country skiing or shoveling and have had a lot of time for reading.

The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal.

This is now one of my favorite books. I can not stop thinking about it. It is a brilliantly told biography of a collection of netsuke that travel through the lives of five generations of the author's family over 150 years through two World Wars and all over the world. If I sound breathless, I can't help it; it is that good.

Netsuke are intricately carved objects made of ivory or boxwood, about the size of a cherry tomato. If you read "The Hare", you will probably do a little research into netsuke. I recommend: The Met Museum.

The collection was begun by Charles Ephrussi in Paris in 1870.

The Ephrussi's were a fabulously wealthy family from Odessa. They were the "Kings of Grain" and they diversified in Europe with banking. The Netsuke pass from Charles to his cousin Viktor in Vienna as a wedding present in 1899. The insidious evil of antisemitism is roiling about and becoming louder and uglier as time goes by. The Ephrussi's were Jewish.

The context of places, and of history is deep and rich and, for me, who never paid attention in any history class, this book is an education. The odyssey of the netsuke, ends in a new vitrine in the author's home but there are two more owners after Viktor and before Edmund. I will not say more so as not to spoil your reading.

This book stimulated my synapses and my soul. If you read it, take your time, read every word, and you may want to keep a list of things to google things, events and places that the author mentions.

The author, --Edmund de Waal is also an artist who works in porcelain. On his website: edmunddewaal.com you can see his work and read more about him. It is worthy of your time. I am hooked on Edmund -- notice the first name basis. The book may be made into a movie (sigh), and Edmund de Waal is now working on a new book, White.

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

This is a beautifully written memoir with stunning and raw descriptions of the natural world. The author is training a goshawk, which she says is as much like a hawk as a tiger is like a kitten. It is the story of the rugged road through grief and suffering back to life and beauty. I must say that even though I have not finished reading this yet but I can still heartily recommend it. I feel a bit like I have fallen down the rabbit hole. I am loving it.

Helen Macdonald and her goshawk, Mabel.

And these: (There are links associated with Iyengar and Solomon, just click on the images of their books).

Tomorrow, I am sure it will be warmer than the -17 temperature that I woke up to. Hopefully I will get in some skiing with Mr. Fix-it or snowshoeing with Tess. Have a good one.